Family Bonding
by Moonfiregoldeyes
Summary: Sesshomaru does not want to admit to wanting, or needing. But sometimes, he just can't help it.


He had thought it better if things had gone back to the way they had been before. Before she had crashed into his life like a star exploding into a new world.

He had hoped that the feelings that she had brought with her would leave too. They had, but somehow it wasn't the same. After burning for so long, the ice that enveloped his heart hurt far worse then her presence. The feelings that he had thought he longed for weighed to heavily on him, but he could not go back. He could not crawl back to the human girl and beg for her return. It was not in him, or his heart.

He could remember her growing from the small pixie that followed in his footsteps to the woman he watched from afar. He could see how she moved, kneeling to help the miko in her garden or accepting a string of fish from his half-brother. Learning from the old miko in her hut or following the kitsune to the slayer and monk's dwelling. Watching as the human's of the small village clumped around her, drowning out the sweet floral scent of his human and staining her.

She couldn't know he was there. The half-breed did, of course. No self-respecting guardian would miss this Sesshomaru's lingering presence after so many moons. He wouldn't have said a word to the girl, so why was she staring in his direction?

She had left him.

No, that was not true. He had left her, abandoned her when he thought to save her. The dark hanyou's defeat had come with a price. Sesshomaru did not have the freedom of humoring the human anymore. He had to go back to his palace and rule the youkai, like he had aspired to since he had been a pup at his father's feet.

The hanyou did a proficient job in raising the girl, and when the miko had returned from her well, the confusion that had came with the thought of her living in a well for that many years had given the great Taiyoukai a headache or two until he had managed to beat the information from his younger sibling, she had helped in the raising. The half-breed had mated with the miko, tying her into his life and that of his alpha. The ageless miko raised the girl, and now the two looked the same age. The slayer was advancing in her years, but was still at an acceptable breeding age, if the little humans running around her hut were of any clue. Just how many pups did the monk want anyway? Did it not become hard to provide for his family after the two sets of twins that he had produced so far? And she was yet again swelling with another!

His brother's mate had already carried two, and a third was blossoming in her womb. The two boys that the hanyou had produced were more youkai then human, holding to the dark hair of their dam but having ears and claws like their sire.

Rin though, Rin did not take a mate. She watched over the children as her friends' families grew in size, but did not accept any to produce her own. Sesshomaru was not stupid, he observed the possible mates that came and went as she rejected them one after another. The miko consoled her after each, and though he could not enter the village to hear the words, he scented the sadness on her. What was the girl waiting for? Already she had passed the age when males flocked to her, and now she seemed forgotten by the young males. How could they not see the beauty of her?

"Sesshomaru." The half-breed brother of his called from the left. "She misses you."

"This Sesshomaru has-"

"No need for humans. Yeah yeah, I hear that every year, but I keep finding you here Sess, and that ain't pretty." Curling his lip, the hanyou came to sit next to him. "I would have thought the great Inu no Tashio would do better than following a bitch around like a dog." He snickered. "Forgot, you are one."

"Half-breed…"

"Just talk to her Sesshomaru. No one's asking you to take her back or anything." Silver dog ears wilted slightly. "She stopped eating you know. She's sleeping less and less too. She's acting like a bitch missing her mate. And from the looks of it you are too."

"Do not comment on how this Sesshomaru looks half-breed!" But he could not deny the charges held against him.

It had been over two years since he had allowed the humans to know that he was here. Only the hanyou and his ilk ever caught a scent of him in the woods. Two years since he had openly talked with his Rin.

"If you don't, she will die. Humans are fragile. She can't last much longer without you." Inuyasha ignored his brother's outburst, used to the verbal bashing he got when he spoke up against the Taiyoukai. "Do you really want to see that happen?"

Sighing, Sesshomaru continued to watch the women, two pregnant mates and one thin waif that never seemed to grow. Each splashed and played in the stream, more apt to get water onto themselves then the clothes they were supposed to washing. Pups played on the nearby banks, and the older one's splashed in the shallows. His Rin seemed more subdued, more to fatigue and sadness then a lack of trying.

"Brother, what is it like, having a mate?" The thought leapt into the air faster then he could stop it. He feared, _feared!,_ how his sibling would respond.

Instead of laughing, teasing, or doing anything that Sesshomaru would have thought his younger capable of doing, he gave a half shrug. "Really, it's like fighting for your life every second of the day, and the rest of it is like being doused in warm sunlight. Kagome carrying my pups was the best damn sight I've seen, and knowing she loves me makes it better." A smile came onto his lips; one Sesshomaru had never thought his younger brother would show. "Everything comes down to her. Sure, I'd like to say I'm alpha male, but who the fuck would I be kidding? She's every strength and weakness I have, along with those pups." Slapping the ground absently, Inuyasha tilted his head to the side. "Her mother said something, when I asked for her daughter's hand. It's easier to die for someone then it is to live for them." Anger and a bit of confusion came into Inuyasha's eyes. "You, _Lord_ Sesshomaru, are taking the easy road."

"How do you suggest in rectifying the situation? This Sessomaru-"

"_I_. 'This person' crap is damn right annoying, and makes everyone around you feel like shit. Hell, I couldn't get the kid off the third person mantra for years. Everyone knows who the fuck your talking about, no reason to rub the damn thing in everyone's faces." Inuyasha snorted, scuffing the dirt as he got to his feet. "This Inuyasha is going to find his mate and then _this_ _Inuyasha_ is going to eat some of her cooking."

"Half-breed…" Raising his claws in warning, glowing green from the gathered poison, he snarled at his brother. "Do not mock me."

"Ooh, scary." Leaping forward, he called over his shoulder. "You forgot your third person! Hear how stupid you sound?"

Forgetting himself, for just the barest of moments, the great Taiyoukai leapt after the hanyou, intent on forcing the hanyou's submission. Following him down into the clearing, Sesshomaru ran past the women and children into the meadow.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" The whispered words caught his elfin ears and he stopped, hair bellowing forward after the jaunt he had taken down the incline. Turning slowly, trying to avoid the feeling of facing his doom, he locked his eyes to Rin's hair.

She had grown, but still stood below the miko and slayer. Her diminutive size made her long curly dark hair seem even longer and fuller. The kimono, a dark silvery green, graced her figure, making sure the Taiyoukai understood that the girl he had left in his brother's care had grown into a woman. Water sparkled on her bare arms and feet. If he had been any other he would have smiled at the sight, it seemed his former charge never took to shoes.

He wondered if he looked different. No, probably not. Youkai did not change in the sparse years that had caused her blossoming. The light in her eyes had come back, something he hadn't seen recently. His cursed brother was right. She needed him just as much as he needed her. He would not be repeating that into the air. One bonding moment was more than good in tiding him over for the next few decades.

Attempting to gather some of his dignity back, as he had been openly staring at her, he stood regally. "Rin."

With that word, her whole face lit up. Turning to her friends, who were watching the two word exchange with confusion, she bowed and exited the water. Hurrying to his side, she stood unsure for a few moments. Uncertainty and happiness warred for the majority of her scent, and he again said "Rin."

She smiled, and everything shifted back into the light. The ice melted off his heart, and he gave a small upturn of his lips to show her he felt the same. Maybe bonding wasn't such a bad thing. He would just have to select whom to spend it with.

"Rin!" The miko, Kagome, called out at them. Two sets of eyes turned to the miko, who grinned in response to her own mate bounding up behind her to wrap her into an embrace. To hold Rin as such… "We want to come to the wedding!"

"Wedding?" The word was lost on him. "This Ses-" closing his eyes for all of two seconds, he tried again. "I do not see why a wedding is of importance to the Lord of the West."

"You'll learn." His Rin said.

Eyes widening at what he had thought of his innocent Rin making such comments to him of all people, he looked down at the slip of a girl that he could not live without. What had his baka half-breed brother and his pack taught his Rin?


End file.
